Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Ol’ Turban Bomb Explodes into the MSM

Update: Fox News and The New York Post have picked it up now, too. Thanks to Aeneas for the tip.


As I reported last weekend, a series of one thousand signed and numbered prints of the most famous Mohammed cartoon — Kurt Westergaard’s “Turban Bomb” — are being sold to raise money for the International Free Press Society. See my earlier post for details on how to purchase your copy of this iconic drawing.

Turban Bomb

And now news of the initiative has actually made it into the MSM — I hope it boosts sales for the IFPS. According to the AP:

Prophet Muhammad Cartoon Goes on Sale in Denmark

COPENHAGEN (AP) — A Danish press freedom group said Wednesday it is selling copies of a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad that caused outrage across the Muslim World.

Some 1,000 printed reproductions of a drawing depicting Islam’s prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban are being sold for 1,400 kroner ($250) each, said Lars Hedegaard, chairman of the Danish Free Press Society.

“All we are doing is starting a debate,” Hedegaard said. “We are using our freedom of speech.”

Hedegaard said Danish artist Kurt Westergaard, who drew the cartoon in 2005, had given the society permission to produce the copies and sell them. Each numbered copy has been signed by Westergaard, Hedegaard said.
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“We have not, and are not, breaking any laws,” Hedegaard told The Associated Press.

Westergaard has been living under police protection since an alleged plot to murder him was discovered last year.

Twelve cartoons depicting the prophet, including the one by Westergaard, were published in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in 2005.

The following year, they triggered massive protests from Morocco to Indonesia, with rioters torching Danish and other Western diplomatic missions. Some Muslim countries boycotted Danish products.

Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet for fear it could lead to idolatry.

Throughout the crisis, then Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen distanced himself from the cartoons but resisted calls to apologize for them, citing freedom of speech and saying his government could not be held responsible for the actions of Denmark’s press.

On Saturday, Fogh Rasmussen was chosen to become NATO’s new secretary-general despite threats by Turkey, the alliance’s only Muslim member, to veto his election.


Hat tip: Occidental Soapbox.

4 comments:

Homophobic Horse said...

“All we are doing is starting a debate,”

No you're not. All your doing is suggesting that all the terrorism we've been seeing a lot of lately is actually mandated by Mohammed's stupid rants written in the Koran. So it's only natural the Muslims want the cartoon censored. It incites opposition to Islam instead of good dhimmitude.

X said...

The protestation of innocence is necessary to contrast with the violent behaviour of muslims to this latest announcement. There needs to be a constant remind that Islam is incapable of "debate", and that we, not they, are the injured party in this exchange.

thll said...

Muslims play victims wanting to call the tune.

lupa said...

Many Muslims continue to abuse their standing as the "aggrieved." Yet these same individuals do not hesitate to take the offensive and attack with the intent to kill innocent people, including their fellow Muslims.

Islam, a religion? I doubt it. I've never heard of a religion that sanctions murdering its own believers when they try to convert away from Islam or murdering non-believers who refuse to convert to Islam.